Good afternoon, everyone—families, friends, loved ones—with a very special greeting to fathers in the audience: Happy Father’s Day—and of course, welcome to our 2025 History graduates of Stanford University.
As we speak, professors and students are delivering speeches across this campus, in smaller ceremonies like this, explaining what a particular major is and why it matters. What is Economics, really, some Econ prof is explaining. Or Science, Technology, and Society, or Mechanical Engineering. In other words: What have your loved ones been doing all this time? Why does it matter?
So in that tradition, let me do my best to explain. What is History?
Perhaps you can help me out. I mean, basically everyone knows this. There’s the History Channel. Bar trivia. So I think we can keep my remarks extremely short and get on with the rest of the proceedings.
History is the systematic study of the ______________ [Audience Says “Past”]
Oh….
No, I’m so sorry….
I don’t mean to switch into lecture mode. But—oh good heavens, no.
Have they been keeping the truth from you? Have you been keeping your loved ones in the dark all this time?
Let’s take a moment and go back to basics.
History is not the study of the past.
History is the study of the present—that just happens to be past. Gone. Separated from us, perhaps by mere seconds. Decades and centuries. Sometimes by millennia. These thin slivers of time where all human experience takes place. History studies the “here and now” that is dead and gone, using just the fragments that were left behind.
History is the study of Past Presents.
And this is where things get really interesting.
Since History is the study of the present, then History is also the study of the future. But again: futures that just happen to be gone. Past Futures.
Think of yourself in this moment. For every single one of us, the way we make sense of our lives—the choices we make, and the meanings we assign to these choices—is not just a matter of what’s happening right now. And right now. And right now. Each of us is a tangle of anticipations and projections. We tell and retell stories about futures that haven’t happened yet. What does the world hold for my child, my brother, my neighbor? More mundane things too: When is this speech going to be over? I skipped breakfast and those hors d'oeuvres back there looked good. Every split second, we tell more and more stories. We update these stories on a daily basis. Even second by second, according to Neuroscientists. It’s this storytelling, after all, that helps us navigate our lives and give our lives a sense of trajectory.
The same holds true for every human being who’s ever lived. 99.9% of their stories never came true. Whether not at all, or not exactly. Even then, however, they shaped them. Their decisions. The way they made meaning of their lives.
And since this is what we’re after—Human Experience—we as historians have no choice but to study, not just things that happened, but also those things that never happened, and yet which shaped the course of humanity nonetheless.
If History is the study of the present, and History is the study of the future—you guessed it—History is also the study of the past.
But wait, isn’t he contradicting himself? No. Because these too are gone. Past pasts.
Think again of yourself. You woke up this morning, maybe still elated about some work victory. Or maybe you argued with your spouse. It’s all gone, but it’s still here with you. In your posture, your mood, in how easy or difficult it is to take a deep, replenishing breath. We spend so much of our present telling stories about our past, too. We write and rewrite these stories as well, with every passing moment. They also give a sense of trajectory. Of a specific narrative or meaning. They shape the choices we make.
So now we’re in a position to answer the question: What is History? This study, not of The Past, but of three things: Past Presents, Past Futures, and Past Pasts, all tangled up together, being woven and rewoven, over and over again.
History is nothing short of the study of spacetime as experienced by a mortal, storytelling species.
It is the study, NOT of how one dot on a timeline becomes the next dot, and the next dot. It’s the study of how one present—this complex Past Present/Past Past/Past Future bundle—becomes the next and the next and the next.
And not just one. Multiply this billions of times, across the population of the Earth at any given moment, and refract it through languages, cultures…—THEN you begin to get a picture of what historians study.
And here’s the thing: there is no supercomputer that can model this. Not by a long shot. We can simulate nuclear reactions. We can model climate. But human beings living in time—this most quotidian of things is far beyond the reach of any machine.
So the next time you sit across from your graduate—your daughter, your son, your partner, your friend—look at them the way you might if they were first chair of the New York Philharmonic. Or a star athlete on the medal podium. Or a painter painting something of such beauty that you can hardly believe they’re related to you, your friend, your partner.
Look at them with that kind of quiet awe. Because what they do is nothing short of extraordinary.
Congratulations, Class of 2025. We are so proud of you.
Thank you.
